


Creaky Floors

by desk_mess



Series: BtJM One-Shots [4]
Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25333636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desk_mess/pseuds/desk_mess
Summary: Barbara accidentally scares the (un)life out of Beetlejuice and triggers some traumatic memories. Luckily Charles knows how to cool the demon down.(Rated Teen for Language and Implications.)
Relationships: Beetlejuice & Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Charles Deetz
Series: BtJM One-Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1762942
Comments: 3
Kudos: 25





	Creaky Floors

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be light-hearted and silly. But rather suddenly it got dark.

Beetlejuice started tossing and turning in zis bed just after the rest of the house settled in to sleep. In zis opinion, it was always too quiet in the Maitland-Deetz house at night. Averagely, the only sounds to be heard were quaint snores from the living, the peaceful purrs of Sandy the Sandworm, and the humming of assorted appliances (mostly the refrigerator Beetlejuice had accidentally broken). On this night, the creaking and rustling of a certain demon in zis bed was among these noises. 

It was past midnight when said demon finally settled. Zis head hung over the side of the bed, the sheets tangled around zim. Beetlejuice laid there for a while before realizing ze was craving ice-cream.  _ Pistachio, lime and chocolate ice-cream. With ants for sprinkles. And... maybe some worms for a slimy garnish.  _ **_Definitely_ ** _ whipped cream. _ Ze decided with finality. 

Just thinking about zis midnight snack sent saliva dripping from the ghouls mouth and into the luxurious cream carpeting. 

It took Beetlejuice some time before ze was finally released from the sheets. Said sheets had stripped zim of his socks and boxers in the struggle. Beetlejuice stood and shrugged, glancing at the mess of blankets and pillows. Ze grabbed zis pastel green robe from the back of the door and began zis descent to the kitchen. Ze sunk through the floor and phased through the walls, making quick work to get to zis destination. 

When Beetlejuice finally made it to the kitchen, ze pulled out the big popcorn bowl and an ice-cream scoop. Said ice-cream scoop was zis and Lydia's, adorned with a spider handle Delia refused to even look at. Beetlejuice trotted across the kitchen and retrieved the three ice-cream tubs ze required, not even realizing the looming presence behind zim until it was too late. 

* * *

Being ghosts, Barbara and Adam Maitland had no need to sleep. So when they did lay down and curl up in their bed, they were aware of everything going on around them. On the floor below them, Charles snored, Delia breathed slowly, Lydia whistle-snored softly, and Beetlejuice tossed and turned. 

Barbara leaned over Adam to check the time and found that it was past midnight. "What's wrong, hon?" 

"I'm going to go check on Beej. Ze hasn't settled down all night," with that, Barbara gave her husband a kiss and slipped out of bed. Her gauzy white nightdress caught on the bedpost and Adam chuckled as she tried to free herself. "Adam!" Barbara whined playfully as he continued snickering. 

"Oh, alright," Adam huffed with a smile, flicking Barbara's nightdress free. Barbara turned on her heel without so much as a 'thank you'. 

The ghostly blonde made it down the hallway just to see the tips of violet hair vanish through the hardwood floor. Barbara sighed and crept down the hall to the stairs, watching from the landing as Beetlejuice floated through the walls. Ze headed for the kitchen.  _ This can't be good. _ Barbara sighed, phasing through the banister and floating down to the floor. She snuck quietly to the kitchen, watching the demon from behind. 

* * *

The ice-cream tubs fell from Beetlejuice's hands and split open, leaking their contents on the floor. Zis hair shot fully white with a gut-wrenching, ear-splitting, heart-stopping scream. Barbara's head was sent swimming as the demon's scream finally ceased and ze sunk to the floor before the refrigerator. "Holy  _ fuckin' _ Satan,  _ Goddamn _ fuckin'  _ Christ!" _ Ze took a moment to compose zimself. "What the  _ fuck _ , Barbara?!" 

Beetlejuice looked up at her, hair still as white as the refrigerator behind zim. Ze leaned forward, resting on zis hands and knees, melted ice-cream soaking through zis robe. Ze was breathing incredibly heavily despite not needing to. 

Beetlejuice looked up at Barbara. Except... it wasn't Barbara. 

Her hair was a grey and white beehive. Her suit was stained crimson, the edge of her skirt the deepest and darkest of burgundys, almost black. Her throat was slit and oozed putrid, coiling smoke. Her frown was menacing and frigid, sharp fangs poking at her lower lip. 

Beetlejuice shook zis head and looked up again. 

Her eyes were warm, soft and concerned, grey in the light of the moonlit kitchen. Her gauzy, ankle length nightdress flapped in the wind from the open kitchen window. Her beautiful platinum-looking locks brushed against her elbows as she sat down in front of him. 

Barbara reached out and laid a gentle hand on zis "I didn't mean to scare you, Beej." Beetlejuice glanced down at their hands. 

The one laid atop zis clenched, sharp talons digging into zis flesh, deep. Wrinkled white skin pulled taught over her knuckles and Beeltejuice screamed as her nails broke zis skin. The more ze screamed, the deeper and deeper they plunged, eventually hitting bone and piercing through it, shattering zis wrist. The demon let out a wailing, painful cry, collapsing into the arms in front of him. 

Said arms were soft and soothing, rubbing circles into zis back as chattering went on above the two. Beetlejuice curled up in Barbara's arms, letting the coldness of her ghostly form cool zim. Finally, ze calmed down and the conversation above the two spectres became clear. 

* * *

Adam and Lydia had been the first two to arrive at the scene. Adam had simply dropped through the floor and into the kitchen. Lydia had practically fallen down the stairs after hearing her demonic sibling's third scream. Beetlejuice wailed pitifully in front of Barbara, the floor covered in murky greens and browns. Lydia and Adam were still looking on in shock when the other living residents arrived. Charles was the first to break over the scene. 

"Barbara what happened?" So she told them. 

"I wanted to check on zim. I must've been to quiet and scared him. Ze keeps calling me Juno-" the demon wailed again at the mention of zis mother. "-I must've brought back some horrible memories. I've never seen Beej so scared. What do I do?!" 

"Barbara, dear, calm down," Adam laid his hands on her shoulders. "Beej needs you calm right now. We dont want to freak zim out further." 

"You guys go back to bed," Charles told the congregation. "I'll stay with zim until ze calms down. Ze's most comfortable with me when ze gets panicky," Charles began ushering Delia and Lydia away who both protested. Adam gave Barbara a peck and left of his own accord. "Lydia." 

* * *

"...Please go back to bed. We will talk about this at dinner tomorrow." Charles. 

"Dad, please! Ze's my best friend and ze's obviously not okay right now!" Lydia. 

"Lydia, darling, listen to your father. He can handle Beej." Delia. There was a huff and the clacking of slippers as Lydia moped away. Two more sets of footsteps followed and Beetlejuice looked up. The only ones left in the room were zim, Barbara and Charles. The latter sat down next to the two and took a palm-sized chewy star out of his pocket. Beetlejuice took it and sat up, letting go of Barbara. Charles laid a hand on Barbara's shoulder and she left them, socked footsteps completely silent. Charles got up and shuffled around the kitchen as Beetlejuice sat on the floor, chewing on his star. 

Soon enough, the floor was clear of ice-cream and Charles was helping his demonic companion to zis feet. The two made their way upstairs to the office and settled down on the plush rug by the bookcase. Charles sat criss-cross against the bookcase while Beetlejuice laid on his stomach, chewing on his toy and twining the carpet fibers through his claws. 

They sat together in peaceful silence until Beetlejuice's simulated breathing returned to being non-existent. The demon's hair was shifting to a deep blue with its tips remaining white. Charles leaned forward and gently pried the chew toy away from Beetlejuice and handed zim a bag of neon gummy worms instead. Finally, someone spoke, voice hushed. 

"Can you tell me what happened, Beej?" The person in question nodded slowly. Then shook zis head frantically, hair frosting vermillion. "Hey, hey," Charles hovered a hand over Beetlejuice's shoulder. Ze nodded and he laid his hand on zis shoulder. "Don't get mad, now. Remember?" Charles reached over to the bookcase and pulled out a thick binder, opening it. 

Inside was pieces of laminated paper with drawings on them. Said drawings were done by Lydia and Barbara and were beautifully detailed. Beetlejuice took the binder from Charles and began to page through it. 

Ze found the numbers and pulled the '2' from the page. Ze flipped back to the people section and grabbed Barbara and Juno. Ze placed the '2' between them and switched Barbara and Juno around a few times. "Barbara changed to Juno? And Juno changed to Barbara?" Beetlejuice nodded aggressively. "Is that why you screamed?" Ze shook zis head, paging through the binder again. 

It only took over a dozen tries to finally piece together the story from the demon's side. Especially considering Beetlejuice's inability to read. When finally ze closed the binder with a  _ snap _ , Charles sighed in relief. "I'm getting tired so I'm going to head to bed. Wake us up if you need anything, okay?" The demon nodded and Charles stood up, making his way out, when suddenly Beetlejuice was tugging on his sleeve from behind him. 

"Ca-can, can I sl-slee-sleep, sleep in you-your, your roo-room, room? Can I slee-sleep, sleep in your room?" Ze muttered carefully, tripping over his words. Ze was twiddling with the hem of Charles' pajama sleeve, unthreading it. Charles nodded. 

"Of course you can, come on." 

* * *

The next morning, when Charles left for work, Beetlejuice was still curled up in zis blanket nest in the master bedroom. Ze had slept perfectly sound through the rest of the night. 

**Author's Note:**

> You may notice that Beej's pronouns are ze/zim. I wanted to see how I felt about zim having different pronouns. I like the idea but I'm not completely sold.  
> The binder Beej and Charles used is called a PEC or AAC book. They're used for nonverbal communication and I realized that Beej would super benefit from it. I'm hoping to one day get myself one!  
> Remember: You are loved and cherished and we'd hate to lose you <3.


End file.
